As we highlighted in this list of open source audio/video replacements, the number of free software downloads to replace commercial programs keeps on growing. It’s remarkable, really.

Clearly, the exponential growth in media options – an expanding entertainment and communication universe – is fueling a corresponding growth in software to create multimedia. The following list travels from audio-video players to file sharing to file conversion (related question: why are there so many file formats? Will we ever get to a universal format? We're just hoping.)

As always, if you have top open source picks for audio/video software, please post them in the Comments section below. Happy downloading!

CD/DVD Burning

As the name suggests, this tool converts AV video files to DVD-compatible formats and burns them onto playable DVDs. It includes a DVD menu editor and a video and audio editor. Operating System: Windows.

For Windows users only, InfraRecorder burns CDs and DVDs, and it can also blank rewritable discs, fixate discs and create copies. It integrates with Windows Explorer, which makes it very easy to use. Operating System: Windows.

This suite of command-line tools includes the cdrecord CD/DVD/Blu-ray recording software, as well as tools for reading optical media, extracting audio, and more. It's a mature project that has been around for quite a few years. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

Very recently updated, Ares is a BitTorrent client and chat program that allows users to share images, audio, video, software and documents. It includes a built-in player and a library organizer. Operating System: Windows.

FrostWire is a combination BitTorrent client, YouTube downloader and media player. It also supports Android devices, so you can take your media files with you on the go. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X, Android.

This Windows client for the Direct Connect/Advanced Direct Connect file-sharing network has been downloaded millions of times. The site includes a helpful tutorial and beginner's guide for those who aren't sure how P2P works. Operating System: Windows.

Designed for security and privacy, ANts P2P encrypts everything you send or receive over the network and masks connections so that users are untraceable. It's Java-based, so it will run on most platforms. Operating System: OS Independent.

Multimedia File Conversion

With DVDx, users can copy most DVDs and Blu-ray discs to their hard drives. It can also transcode movies from one format to another, reformat video with an incorrect aspect ratio, add or remove subtitles, extract audio and remove letterbox black borders from movies. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

This conversion tool supports AVI, WMV, MKV, RM, MOV and other formats. It includes helpful presets that will meet the needs of most users, or you can tinker with the advanced settings. Operating System: OS X.

This app provides an interface to three other popular open source video tools: FFMPEG, MEncoder and Mplayer. It can convert video files, rip unprotected DVDs, add subtitles, download from YouTube, extract audio or video and more. Operating System: Windows.

This tool allows you to download clips from more than 93 different websites, including YouTube, Yahoo Video, Vimeo, Boing Boing and others. It can also convert clips among popular formats. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.